Ask those who have tried to produce natural gas from shale formations, and they'll tell you: One size doesn't fit all.
Conditions vary—not just from region to region, but from field to field, formation to formation, and, occasionally, from well to well. Much of what works in the Barnett shale, for example, will not work in the Marcellus. Climate, temperatures, and topography can pose unique challenges. So can local inexperience with the oil and gas industry.
Executives from two companies delivered that message to an Oct. 20 US Energy Association seminar about the infrastructure, workforce, and environmental challenges of bringing Marcellus shale gas to market. About the same time, the US Environmental Protection Agency said it plans to develop national standards for handling wastewater from shale gas and coalbed methane production.
Neither Brent Halldorsen, chief operating officer of Fountain Quail Water Management, nor Kevin West, managing director for external affairs at EQT Corp., a Pittsburgh gas production and midstream company, knew about EPA's announcement as they spoke. What they said nevertheless showed that the federal agency's goal will be hard to achieve.
Halldorsen particularly noted differences between operating in the Barnett and Marcellus shales. He explained that activity is still in its early stages in Pennsylvania, making less-complicated and less-expensive on-site water disposal more practical, he explained. But as hundreds more wells are drilled, more sophisticated centralized treatment centers will be needed, he said.
The state's geology also makes flow-back or produced water reinjection largely impractical, Halldorsen stated. Trucks have to transport wastewater to Ohio, raising disposal costs to $10-12/bbl from the Barnett's $1-2/bbl, he said. "That's when water treatment starts to look more attractive," he added.
Pipeline possibility
Halldorsen said as Marcellus production grows, demand could justify pipelines for wastewater disposal. "If a company already has a gas pipeline, it could consider building one for wastewater along the same right-of-way to a central treatment plant," he suggested.
EQT and other shale gas producers agree that water management clearly needs to be addressed, West observed. "We triple-case our wells when we drill through aquifers, but that isn't enough," he said. "What happens to water after it reaches the surface is a legitimate concern."
He said EQT has well over 100 employees who grew up in Pennsylvania and left to work in the oil and gas upstream in Texas, Alaska, and elsewhere before returning to well-paying jobs in a region which didn't have many after its industrial base declined in the 1960s and '70s.
Several could have ideas about how to handle wastwater. The obvious question is whether EPA will be ready to listen to them.
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About the Author
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.